Metalinguistic Awareness and Bilingual vs. Monolingual EFL Learners: Evidence from a Diagonal Bilingual Context

Journal of English Language Pedagogy and Practice

مقاله 5، دوره 1، Inaugural Issue، اردیبهشت 2008، صفحه 66-102   

نوع مقاله: Research Paper

نویسنده

Sima Modirkhamene^*

University of Urmia, Iran

چکیده

This paper reports a study of 85 Iranian EFL learners in the English Language Department of Urmia University. It explores the possible differences between performance of 38 Persian monolingual and 47 Turkish-Persian bilingual EFL learners on metalinguistic tasks of ungrammatical structures and translation. The underlying hypothesis is that bilinguals in diagonal bilingual contexts experience a significant development in terms of their metalinguistic awareness. Results of some t-test analyses indicated consistent differences between the two groups in favour of bilinguals. The findings, thus, strengthen the proposal that bilinguals may develop a more analytical orientation to language that may help them in learning additional languages. The findings are discussed in relation to implications on EFL learning as well as EFL teaching.
 
 

کلیدواژه‌ها

Metalinguistic Awareness؛ Bilingual؛ Monolingual؛ Linguistic Background

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